“Last year I had the opportunity to move to a big European club and I stayed on the understanding that if we failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season I’d be allowed to go,” says Suarez. PHOTO: FILE
LONDON: Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez has accused the club of not honouring a clause in his contract which would let him leave Anfield, in comments published in yesterday’s Guardian.
Suarez repeated his desire to join a club in the Champions League and said that Liverpool had gone back on an agreement written into his contract, signed last August, which obliges them to sell to any club offering more than £40 million.
“Last year I had the opportunity to move to a big European club and I stayed on the understanding that if we failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season I’d be allowed to go,” he told the paper. “Now all I want is for Liverpool to honour our agreement.”
Arsenal are reported to have bid £40,000,001 for the controversial Uruguayan in a bid to trigger the release agreement.
Liverpool maintain the clause only obliges them to negotiate with clubs offering more than £40 million, but Suarez disagrees.
“I have the club’s word and we have the written contract and we are happy to take this to the Premier League for them to decide the case but I do not want it to come to that,” he said.
“I’m 26. I need to be playing in the Champions League. I waited one year and no one can say that I did not give everything possible with my teammates last season to get us there.”
Manager Brendan Rodgers has urged Suarez to repay the support of the club and its fans by staying at Liverpool.
Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger has admitted Arsenal’s pursuit of signing the Liverpool man is ‘on standby.’
“At the moment the situation is on standby,” Wenger told Al Jazeera Sport. “I heard that [Suarez is considering legal action to force a move] but this is sometimes linked with things that you don’t know as a potential buyer.
“That is the story between Suarez and Liverpool and I don’t know what has been said, what has been promised and what has been written and that is only Suarez and Liverpool that can decide that.
“It’s nothing to do with us. We have been told that the player wants to leave Liverpool and that’s why we’ve acted.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 8th, 2013.
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